Spine boards have been used by physicians and emergency medical technicians for a number of years in the transport of injured or incapacitated individuals. In general terms, spine boards typically are rectangular boards on which the injured individual is placed. A strapping system is used to secure the individual to the board. The primary purpose of the spine board is to enable the transport of an injured person without injury to his spinal column. The great utility of the spine board has led to it becoming one of the standard pieces of equipment typically found in an ambulance (where the scarcity of space permits only the most useful pieces of equipment).
A principal functional requirement of a spine board is that it enable the transport of an injured person without injury to his spinal column. Therefore, the spinal board must be rigid, even when used to transport heavy patients, for excessive flexion of the spine board can exacerbate spinal injuries. On the other hand, it is desirable that such boards be as light as possible, since they often must be carried in unpredictable and challenging settings.
One approach to meeting these basic design criteria has been to use internal stiffening elements to impart extra rigidity to the spine board. For example, one commercially available spine board employs a plastic outer shell that is filled with foam. Suspended within the foam are reinforcing rods to impart some greater stiffness to the board. These rods are free-floating within the foam, in that they are inserted into the spine board after formation of the shell and prior to addition of foam. During use, this (and similar) spine boards is subjected to irregular cyclical loading as patients of varying shape and weight are placed on, carried, and removed from the spine board. These loading patterns can cause the foam adjacent the stiffening rods to compress with time, thereby creating voids in which the stiffening elements are not properly supported. This in turn, leads to further compression and deformation of the foam during loading, which further compromises the structural integrity of the board.
Hence, there is a need for a spine board that is as rigid after many cyclic loadings as it is when first loaded with a patient, yet which also is lightweight.
Other deficiencies that other approaches have presented lie in the placement of stiffening elements within the central portion of the board. This can be troublesome since patients may have to be x-rayed while still on the board, and materials that are suitable for use as stiffening elements generally block x-rays. Hence, the presence of stiffening elements within the x-ray field of interest may occlude the desired field of interest.
In use, the patient is secured to the spine board with strapping. The manner in which an injured individual is strapped to a spine board may vary, depending on such divergent factors as the condition of the individual, the preferences of the supplier of the board, and the economics of various strapping approaches. There are many different types of strapping systems available. Unfortunately, some spine boards offer only "closed architecture" strapping systems, in that the board can not readily be modified to accept other strapping systems. There is a further need for a spine board that permits the use of a broad array of strapping elements. consideration in the use of spine boards is the risk presented by microbial contamination. Injured individuals who are transported on spine boards are often both the source and recipient of significant microbial cross contamination (as through open wounds). Such cross contamination may be patient to patient as noted, or patient to care provider. There is a need for a spine board that is resistant to microbial growths and that is easy to disinfect.